Read on Twitter
1) Some are asking the reasonable question "Why capitalize 'Black' but not 'White''"? After all, both groups are vastly diverse, contain many cultural backgrounds, political views, interests, ethnic backgrounds, etc. Can one be a culture and the other not? https://twitter.com/AaronRHanlon/status/1288479813293027335
2) I capitalize 'Black' because Black people have asked me to and explained why I should. My understanding of that explanation is roughly as written here: https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php
3) When considering such a question my view is it's actually illogical to reduce to question to a simple logical relation. Another way of putting that is if 'Black' is B and 'White is W, context affects the meaning of B and W such that they're not abstract values.
4) My sense is when Black ppl seek acknowledgement (via capitalization in this case) of a common identity & experience that produce an identifiable thing called Black culture, & are embracing that identity for political solidarity & belonging, those are good reasons to honor it.
5) By contrast, when white ppl seek to organize themselves around a similar heuristic, what are their objectives?
6) There's no such thing as 'European' or 'Western' culture ( https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/09/western-civilisation-appiah-reith-lecture) anymore than e.g. a common 'African' culture (the latter one of the reasons 'Black' replaces 'African-American'). ...
7) So the terms of white unity are what? What bonds our experience as white ppl besides an experience of racial privilege? In contrast with the reasons to acknowledge Black culture, this doesn't sound like a good reason to acknowledge 'White' 'culture.'
8) And you already know that, because uniting around a putative common experience of whiteness and 'White' 'culture' is exactly what white supremacists and white nationalists want. It's uniting around a belief in one's superiority, not a distinct *culture*.
9) I understand I'm a white person, which means only one thing to me: that I'm a beneficiary of some degree of privilege or advantage because of my appearance, and so it's in my interest as a free-thinking, moral human to eliminate that structural privilege. If I don't...
10) ...then I'll have to live my whole life feeling like I got a head start, which as a runner makes me furious, and should make everyone furious too, regardless of their skin.
11) I will never identify with whiteness or 'White' 'culture.' It will never happen. Apart from white privilege I have nothing systematically or culturally in common with other people who are mostly descendants of people from the European continent.
12) I'm proud of my specific heritages but I have no pride in anything called 'White' heritage or identity. White nationalists, white supremacists are not my brothers & sisters; I'll move or die before I live a 'White' 'ethno-state.' Nope. All reasons I won't capitalize 'white.'
13) Done. /end
